Buffalo Valley School · Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0Work means Cookeville for about half of Baxter’s working residents
Only 2% stay in Baxter for work; outside it, Cookeville is the main destination (46%, 7 miles). Baxter grades C− for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 76% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Baxter, in a few figures
Nearly half of Baxter works in Cookeville
260 working residents, 46%, have their main job in Cookeville, 6.8 miles away. That’s 23 times as many as work in Baxter itself. The commute map ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Baxter
54% of Baxter residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 28% of the jobs based in Baxter pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 98% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
36% of the jobs based in Baxter are held by workers 29 or younger, against 25% of Baxter’s own working residents. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 561 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Baxter
On income, poverty and job access, Baxter is better than 20% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Baxter’s grade up (ahead of 47% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (20.5%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Baxter’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Baxter could be anywhere from D to C+.
The places Baxter commutes to
Where Baxter clocks in
46% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Goods, not services: 28% of the jobs in Baxter
616 jobs are based in Baxter.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Baxter, 2013 → 2023: 188 → 616. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Baxter’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Baxter for work, and who comes in
On a workday 548 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 603 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.10 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
About 25 minutes each way, about the TN average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Baxter workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 520 commuters (the 13% who work from home are left out). Across Tennessee: 87% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Where in the region Baxter works
About 26% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most trips from Baxter start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Baxter is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.0% across Tennessee.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 597 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 6.0% of Baxter households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Baxter’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Baxter is 4,020th among 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 195 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,018 | Arkoma OK | 1,863 | $44K | 22.1% | 7.8% | 5% | C− |
| 4,019 | Freeport PA | 1,672 | $49K | 27.3% | 5.6% | 6% | C− |
| 4,020 | Baxter TN | 2,128 | $59K | 20.5% | 0.8% | 2% | C− |
| 4,021 | Marfa TX | 1,574 | $44K | 26.9% | 0.0% | 45% | C− |
| 4,022 | Duchesne UT | 1,722 | $77K | 14.5% | 4.1% | 22% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Baxter, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Baxter: questions
What is the median household income in Baxter?
$58,750 (±$13,428) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Baxter?
20.5%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Baxter?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Baxter work?
2% work in town.
Is Baxter walkable?
Baxter is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Baxter without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Baxter, from the people who make the trip.
More of Baxter
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.